Shifting Gears Referencing The White Lotus During Its Winter Premiere Was Not On My Bingo Card, But It Was Perfect

Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Shifting Gears episode "Dog." Stream it with a Hulu subscription and read at your own risk!

The Parker family is back as Shifting Gears resumed Season 2 with its winter premiere in the 2026 TV schedule. As Riley and Matt battled over house decor and having equal stakes in house decisions, they were also on pet-sitting duty for Carter's girlfriend while she was out of town. This led to an unexpected reference to The White Lotus, which was more perfect than I ever could've imagined.

If I were to make a Venn diagram with Shifting Gears in one circle and The White Lotus in the other, I'm not sure there'd be any overlap other than this one thing. It was a line uttered by my favorite little sister character, Georgia, as she talked about how disappointed she was in an apartment Riley took the children to see earlier:

My ears perked up as soon as I heard the line, and I was reminded of the iconic performance Parker Posey gave as Victoria Ratliff. Georgia mentioned in the episode that she was planning to use the dog to boost her TikTok engagement, and I'd definitely believe she was on the platform given the amount of memes I saw tied to that one line in The White Lotus.

I think what I love most about this line is what it suggests about Georgia. Is it possible the child, who is far too young to be watching The White Lotus, managed to sneak a watch with an HBO Max subscription? Maybe she's just one of those kids who sees a meme with no context and quotes it nonstop. In any case, it was hilarious and unexpected, and I'd love to see more of that in Shifting Gears.

Ultimately, Riley abandoned her plans to move out of her father's house, mainly because it was just far too expensive. I am happy that Matt agreed to let his daughter "pay rent," with the money going into a fund for an eventual down payment on a house. Granted, I'd have to wonder how much she's putting in toward rent to be able to afford her own home, but perhaps that's a problem for a future episode to tackle.

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Shifting Gears is back on ABC with new episodes on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'm eager to see how Matt will bounce back from his big breakup with Eve, and if Riley will ever come clean about her feelings for Gabe.